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Survey Explores Monitoring Methods for Crohn's

YOQNEAM, Israel―Given Imaging Ltd., the maker of PillCam® capsule endoscopy, today announced the results of Crohn's Voices, an online survey of Crohn's patients about their understanding of their condition, their approach to managing their condition with their physician, and what matters most to them in a clinical test of disease activity. Key findings from the Crohn's Voices survey show that 75 percent of patients consider the most important test-related aspect for Crohn's repeat evaluation methods to be for physicians to be able to have a better view of their GI tract.

They also shared that they have a significant amount of concern about the use of monitoring methods that include sedation and radiation. The survey showed that only 19 percent of patients undergo a regular evaluation of their clinical status, regardless of their Crohn's symptoms.

"The Crohn's Voices survey provides useful insights on Crohn's patients' understanding of their condition, and about the need for meaningful conversations between patients and doctors about the value of regular monitoring of their disease activity," said Joel Rosh, MD, Goryeb Children's Hospital, Morristown, N.J. "Physicians and patients also need to discuss what the options for direct visualization of their GI tract are, as the surveyed patients indicate a concern about the risks of sedation and radiation."

Crohn's disease is a chronic and progressive form of inflammatory bowel disease that can affect any area of the GI tract, with lifelong consequences. In 75 percent of Crohn's cases, patients have lesions in the small bowel1. However, the small bowel has traditionally been a difficult part of the GI tract for physicians to visualize, but it is an essential part of the anatomy for successfully evaluating and monitoring the progression of Crohn's.

The ongoing assessment, or monitoring, of disease progression in CD patients, even when symptoms are absent, is considered to be key to the management of this lifelong condition. Crohn's disease can progress even without changes in symptoms, and many Crohn's patients can have active disease without exhibiting symptoms for extended periods of time.

While monitoring the condition even in the absence of symptoms is very important, the Crohn's Voices survey also indicates that 45 percent of respondents only evaluate or monitor their condition, either through observation or testing, when their symptoms change. In fact, only 19 percent of Crohn's patients surveyed said that they make a point of undergoing routine monitoring tests regardless of symptoms. However, three times more respondents, or 64 percent, said that they would be more likely to have regular monitoring if they knew that their condition could worsen without symptom changes.